Libs tipped to score in new seat

Libs tipped to score in new seat - The West Australian

WA political party strategists are gearing up to contest a new battlefront with expectations the State will get a new Federal seat after an electoral redistribution this year.

An Australian Electoral Commission determination in November or December is tipped to add a WA seat at the expense of NSW, after an influx of workers and families migrating west in recent years.

The extra representation would boost WA's seat count from 15 to 16 in the House of Representatives, and parties have already begun crafting submissions to the AEC on where it should go.

ABC election analyst Antony Green said a new WA seat was "certain" and predicted it would further entrench the Liberals, who hold 12 of the 15 current seats, rather than provide a lifeline to Labor.

He predicted the AEC would put most of the Pearce's Perth suburbs - either the northern beaches including Quinns Rocks and Yanchep or metropolitan fringe suburbs east of Midland - into a city electorate.

"It's likely if the new seat was to become Labor then one of the Labor seats would become Liberal," he said. "Whichever way you'd do it, Labor would probably still be left with three seats."

The AEC would take into account submissions from the political parties next year. By the time draft boundaries go out for public comment, it will be mid next year before the new boundaries are known.

Labor State secretary Simon Mead said the party was operating on an 80 per cent likelihood of an extra seat and cautioned voters against handing another seat to the Liberals.